


A Tale of the Sun, Skies, and Seas

by tesadoro



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, BAMF Haruno Sakura, BAMF Hyuuga Hinata, BAMF Tenten (Naruto), Canon-Typical Violence, Explicit Language, Fuuinjutsu Master Uzumaki Naruto, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kirigakure | Hidden Mist Village, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Trauma, Uzushiogakure | Hidden Eddy Village
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:46:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24432307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tesadoro/pseuds/tesadoro
Summary: In which, throughout his two year journey across the Elemental Nations with Jiraiya, Naruto learns more about himself, about the legacy that was kept from him, and decides not to return to Konoha.A story of self-discovery, abandoning the false ideals thrust upon you at a young age, and most importantly, a story about finding what home truly means.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Yamanaka Ino, Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 93
Kudos: 399





	1. The World Breaks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to my completely self-indulgent story based upon many late night rants about what could've been if some things (a lot of things) in canon had been altered. With that in mind, please be gentle with me as this will be my first big writing project and I'm trying my best to do my ideas justice. I also have no beta so if there are any typos or errors feel free to point them out to me.

He’s fourteen years old when he leaves Konoha, waving frantically and smiling far too wide at those watching his departure from the gates. He doesn’t dwell much on how choked up Iruka had sounded when he’d given him his last hug, or the tears that had gathered in Sakura’s pretty green eyes, or the way Kakashi had patted his head for a beat too long. He thinks only about the way the knot in his chest loosens the farther he walks from Konoha and how much easier it is to breathe once Konoha is no longer in sight.

“So, what’s our first stop?” Naruto asks Jiraiya, hoping they’ll be going somewhere far.

Jiraiya shakes his head, “we’re just roaming for now, but we’ll stop at a town closer to the border, they have a beautiful market that opens up around this time of year.”

“Oh,” a small part of him had been hoping to leave the Land of Fire, but closer to the border will do, “what training are we going to do there?”

Once again, Jiraiya shakes his head, “don’t worry about that. It’s time we take a little break, don’t you think? After everything we’ve been through the last few months, it’s only fair.”

Naruto’s too surprised to answer, but he nods nonetheless. By the past few months, Jiraiya refers to the past year since his fight with Sasuke, where Naruto spent every waking moment working tirelessly to try and forget the ache in his chest whenever the Uchiha was mentioned. He’d taken up mission after mission, dragged Tsunade back to Konoha, had too many brushes to death at the hands of either Kabuto or Orochimaru, had learned how to be a team with just Kakashi and Sakura, and had continuously stomped down the guilt and pain associated with Sasuke. He’d gotten used to the bone-deep exhaustion that followed him after every mission, because that was just how things were for a shinobi, and Naruto was determined to be the best of them.

(Or at least, that was what he told everyone when they tried to make him take a break. They didn’t understand that he couldn’t spend time alone, couldn’t let his mind wander and allow for his darker thoughts to take root. He needed to keep going, to keep moving ceaselessly.)

The farther he gets from Konoha, the more appealing the idea of a break becomes, especially when there are no familiar streets or people that hold memories of a time when life seemed so much simpler.

“Yeah, a break sounds perfect.”

Jiraiya beams, claps his heavy hand on Naruto’s shoulders and says, “come on, kid. We’ve got a lot of places to see.”

In four months, Naruto follows Jiraiya across all the border towns of the Land of Fire, picking up little customs and immersing himself with the locals who don’t know his name, don’t know the beast he holds inside of him, they only see a bright boy with an appetite far too large, and they’re so _kind_ it gives Naruto whiplash. They then spend a month in the Land of Rivers and Naruto pretends not to notice when they avoid the places Naruto’s already been to for missions. They skip Amegakure and head straight for the Land of Grass and Jiraiya tells him about the Third Shinobi War and about the Yondaime and Naruto pretends not to notice that there is guilt in his voice as he tells him stories of war and of children far too young to have been involved.

For eight months, Naruto and Jiraiya travel as if there’s no hurry in the world. The Akatsuki becomes a distant threat to Naruto who cares more for visiting every little town they come across, eager to try as much food as he can and buy all sorts of ridiculous key chains to remember the towns by.

He doesn’t think about Sasuke, except for the times he catches sight of dark hair and can’t help the way his chest tightens as he does his best not to cry out his name or chase after each head of dark hair he sees. Sasuke made his choice, and for as much as Naruto has yet to understand or even _like_ Sasuke’s choice, he’s had to accept it.

(Some nights he cries and holds Sasuke’s discarded hitai-ate in his trembling hands, but by morning he stuffs the item away in his bag, and pesters Jiraiya for more stories of the places they’re visiting to distract himself.)

For Naruto’s 15th birthday, they’ve made their way back to Kitori, one of the towns along the border of the Land of Fire. Naruto had loved the town the first time they visited and had basked in the fact that he was a normal kid to everyone else, but back then the town wasn’t celebrating the day of the Nine-Tails defeat.

In Konoha, walking the streets on the 10th of October made him a target for vicious words, disgusted looks, and unrestrained _hatred_ for his existence. Naruto can’t help the way he remains far too alert as Jiraiya leads him through various food stalls. No one in Kitori knows who he really is, but he can’t help but steel himself whenever someone brushes against him or even seems to look his way.

“Relax, kid. No one’s gonna hurt you here,” Jiraiya says quietly as he hands him a stick of brightly colored dango.

“How do you know?” He asks, vulnerability creeping into his tone. He’d learned to trust Jiraiya throughout the past year and vulnerability had been something Naruto had learned to be alright with showing the man.

“Konoha is far from here,” Jiraiya says between a mouthful of the sweet treat, “and I’m not letting anything happen to you, especially not on your birthday.”

Naruto swells with warmth. It’s the kind of warmth he’s been chasing his entire life.

Later that night, when Naruto’s appetite has finally been sated and he’s finally let his guard down, he sits on a quiet bench with Jiraiya. The day is coming to an end and Naruto wishes it wasn’t, not when it’s the best birthday he’s ever had.

“Hey, Ero-sennin.”

“I really wish you would stop calling me that,” Jiraiya huffs.

“Nah, I read and edit your work, you deserve it,” Naruto responds easily. “You got another story for me?”

Naruto’s gazing up at the star speckled sky above him, but he can feel the weight of Jiraiya’s gaze, “yeah, I think you’re old enough for this one.”

“Have you ever heard of Uzushio?” Jiraiya asks quietly, and when Naruto doesn’t respond he continues, “a small shinobi village hidden in the swirling tides, just off the coast of the Land of Fire. What they lacked in size, they made up for in power. They were masters of fuinjutsu, leagues better than I could ever dream to be.”

“What happened to them?”

Jiraiya sighs, “they were too powerful for the other shinobi villages' liking.”

Naruto listens as Jiraiya tells him about Uzushio, about its bright people and the power they held. He listens as Jiraiya tells him about the art of sealing and how creative the people of Uzushio were with their talent. A part of Naruto aches upon hearing the details of their downfall, understanding how it feels to be feared and hated for something one has little to no control over.

“Your clan was from Uzushio,” Jiraiya says slowly, and Naruto feels as if several stones have been dropped into his stomach.

“My clan?” He questions, because that can’t be right. He’s an orphan who doesn’t even know his parents name and there’s no way he had a clan and no one bothered to mention it before, why wouldn’t anyone have told him before?

Naruto looks at Jiraiya with eyes far too wide, “I had a clan? What happened to my clan?” Jiraiya looks at him with guilt in his eyes and it does nothing but stir an old ache in him and desperation blooms. “What do you know? Jiji never told me anything about my family when I asked, he said they weren’t important, but I had a _clan_ and that’s _important – I need to know everything_.”

“Look, kid –”

“ _No,_ ” Naruto cuts in, one hand coming out to grip at the dark green material of Jiraiya’s kimono. “I _need_ to know. Everyone always keeps so many secrets from me and it hurts, I shouldn’t be learning about my clan at 15 years old, _Jiraiya._ ”

Jiraiya looks like he’s going to argue for a second, but the desperate plea in Naruto’s turn seems to have its desired effect as his body sags and he nods slowly, “your mother was Uzumaki Kushina.”

He’d seen that name before, carved in Konoha’s memorial stone. He wants to laugh at how naive he was then, to believe that that Uzumaki was nothing more than a distant relative. And there is anger and grief swirling inside of him as he listens to Jiraiya tell him about his mother and it only grows when he tells him how _strong _she was, strong and beautiful, and Naruto doesn’t understand why he was deprived of knowing about her for so long. It hurts something fierce, to know there was so much that he was kept from knowing.__

“Did she love me?” Naruto asks and he feels like the world is crumbling at his feet.

Jiraiya looks pained as he continues speaking, “she loved you so much . . . . She would’ve loved to be here with you.”

And suddenly there is a chasm and Naruto can’t even think but –– _I was loved, I was loved, I had a mom, and she loved me_. He can’t help the laugh that bubbles out of him, it sounds about as hurt and angry as he is.

“They lied to me,” he says, laughter sounding a little closer to hysterical. “I asked about her, her name’s on the Memorial Stone and they told me she was some distant relative. They lied to me, they left me alone, I could’ve died out on those streets and no one would have cared. The son of one of Konoha’s best and that’s the treatment I get?”

There are tears threatening to spill, but Naruto’s anger holds them at bay. For a moment, he understands how Sasuke had grown to hate Konoha, and he feels one step closer to understanding his decision to leave.

“Naruto,” Jiraiya sighs out, “there’s something else you need to know.”

“What?” He barely holds himself back from spitting the word out, “what else was I lied to about?”

“It’s about your father.”

And as he hears the story of the man who sacrificed himself and his wife so that his son would live, so that Konoha would live to see another day, the world that had been crumbling beneath his feet shatters into a multitude of pieces Naruto isn’t sure he’ll ever be able to put back together.

Naruto nods slowly and runs through all the names he’s seen on the Memorial Stone, wondering if his father’s name had been among those, too. 

“Your father was . . . his name was Namikaze Minato,” Jiraiya tells him slowly and Naruto feels his entire body still. 

He knows that name. It’s the name of the man whose face is carved against the mountain, the same carving he’s splattered paint across, vowing to be better than him. He laughs and it’s a bitter sound and his eyes burn with tears he doesn’t want to shed because shinobi don’t cry.

“That’s a really cruel joke, Ero-sennin,” he responds quietly. “There’s no way . . . the Hokage’s kids aren’t treated like I was. Everyone loves Asuma and Konohamaru, there’s no way.” 

“I’m so sorry, Naruto.” 

He laughs again, just as bitter. Naruto has known pain all his life, but this hurts the most. There’s anger and hurt swirling in his chest and so much confusion. He doesn’t understand how any of the things Jiraiya says can be true, not when the people of Konoha speak of the Yondaime with awe and admiration in their voices and speak of him like he’s worth less than the gum stuck to their shoes. 

“He was my student,” and Naruto tries to suppress the wave of emotions that those words bring. “And he made me your godfather.” 

He feels his anger surge violently and he forces it down. He knows his anger is dangerous, given how tied it seems to be to the Nine Tails sealed inside of him. He’s still angry when he turns his gaze on Jiraiya, “you left me alone.” 

“I know, I’m so —”

“No,” Naruto chokes out. “Do you know how they treated me? Do you know how they _still_ treat me? My entire life I’ve been nothing but a demon to them and I had to deal with that all on my own because my — my parents _died_ and the person who should’ve taken care of me _wasn’t there._ Where did you go? Why weren’t you there? Didn’t I matter to you? You didn’t even send letters or visit — _THIRTEEN YEARS.”_

Jiraiya wears his guilt like a second skin, but it is not enough to quell Naruto’s anger. He still remembers the day they met and now he wonders why Jiraiya had said nothing then. All this time there could have been someone taking care of him, but he was left to navigate the world on his own and the world was cruel to him. It had gotten to the point where Naruto had been convinced — no, he was _still_ convinced that there was something he had done to warrant as much hatred as he was shown. 

“It’s not that simple —”

“What was so difficult? He — he trusted you to be the one to take care of me if something happened and something _did_ happen and you — don’t tell me you couldn’t bear the sight of what killed your student,” Naruto cuts in and there’s a growl to his voice as he lets more of his anger take root. “You couldn’t face the demon, right?” 

“Naruto, you are not the demon,” Jiraiya says, his words taking on a more urgent tone. “And I need you to calm down.” 

“Tell that to Konoha,” he spits. He can feel the Nine Tails chakra boiling beneath his skin, begging to be used. He’s not an idiot, he knows that allowing the demon to take control means throwing himself into a murderous rage, the same rage that had almost killed Haku and Gaara _and_ Sasuke. “I need to go. Don’t follow me.” 

He leaves Jiraiya behind on the bench, hoping the man is smart enough not to go after him. He walks and walks until his anger simmers down to something more manageable. He’s made his way towards the grassy outer area of Kirito and he slowly sinks down into a sitting position, not caring for the inevitable dirt and grass that will stain his yukata. The night is still and the air is cool on his warm skin. He doesn't let himself cry as he looks up at the night sky, instead he brings his hands up to the marks on his cheeks and envisions the life he would have lived if he had not been alone. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jiraiya is a character I struggle with since I'm caught between disliking his character and sighing wistfully at what he could've been (I mean, spy master, fuinjutsu master, a powerful sage, there was so much more he could've done!) if he had not been reduced to an absolute pervert. Since this fic is completely indulgent I've decided to 'redeem' him, which means there will be no bathhouse peeping or sexual harassment towards the ladies. Jiraiya will work harder to deserve being seen as a mentor for Naruto . . . maybe, we'll see how things go. And I'm trying to be purposefully vague about Sasuke, I hope that conveyed itself well enough? If not please let me know I'm always seeking to improve my writing.
> 
> I can be found on tumblr as uzushiosun


	2. The World Continues to Turn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can I say that I'm absolutely blown away by the response to the first chapter? I did not expect those comments and kudos so quickly, I spent the entire night smiling way too hard and I may or may not have teared up a little. My infinite thanks to everyone reading!
> 
> Here's the second chapter. I consider the first chapter and this one as some sort of prologue? So after this, we'll get a little more into things. I'll try to keep updating every 7-10 days from now on.
> 
> As a bit of a preface, Naruto hasn't signed a summoning contract yet, in my mind his fight with Gaara went a lot differently, but that's something that'll be touched upon later on. The Akatsuki isn't much of a threat yet, or well, not one that Naruto has had to encounter aside from the time they come across Itachi and Kisame before Sasuke left Konoha, so basically I'm screwing with the timeline of the Akatsuki's actions here. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Naruto says goodbye to Kirito, adding a wooden key chain carved into the shape of a sunflower to his collection. There’s no specific destination in mind, aside from continuing along the border. For the first time in a little over a year, he’s no longer pleased with this routine. There’s a new restlessness itching beneath his skin that he hasn’t felt since he left Konoha. 

“Ero-sennin,” Naruto says, breaking the silence he’d held between himself and Jiraiya since the night of his birthday. 

Jiray makes a small sound to show he’s heard him.

“I want to learn sealing,” Naruto says, “you said . . . you said they were both good at it. It’s practically in my blood, _ne?_ And we’ve been on this break for over a year, it’s about time we do the training Baa-chan sent us out for.”

Jiraiya lets out a breathy laugh, but Naruto can see that he’s nodding, “alright, kid. We’ll change course and head north. There’s a lot of empty land far from prying eyes and with your track history, we’ll need it.” 

Naruto tries not to look embarrassed as he thinks of the destruction he leveled to various training grounds in Konoha. The rasengan was meant for destruction and with Naruto behind it, that destruction was only amplified. There were also a few more incidents as Naruto tried to mold chakra for more offensive attacks that had a tendency to uproot trees if he wasn’t careful. 

So, they travel north to the small town of Tsuwano. They settle at a small inn that has seen better days and the old innkeeper and her husband become terribly endeared with Naruto. It still takes him by surprise that there are people who can be so openly kind to him without him having to spend weeks agonizing over how to get them to at least tolerate him. 

(There’s a small traitorous voice that tells him that they’d treat him differently the moment they found out about the beast he holds, Naruto does his best to stamp that voice down whenever it creeps up.)

They start with the basic Konoha issued storage and explosive seals first. Jiraiya decides Naruto has nowhere near enough chakra control for any original work and Naruto’s not as impulsive or as reckless as he was before, he understands his limitations a bit better even if they frustrate him to no end. He wants to learn sealing as quickly as he can, but he’ll settle for a slower pace if it means he can keep all his limbs intact. 

Naruto learns that Jiraiya is a better teacher than he’d originally let on. While many of Naruto’s teachers had been impatient and unwilling to bend to his unconventional ways, Jiraiya is almost uncharacteristically patient and much more adaptable than Naruto could have ever expected. He suspects it has a lot to do with their time spent traveling for nothing more than leisure, there was no one he had to feign a persona for.

Naruto enjoys it, especially since most days sealing is so difficult it makes him want to tear his hair out. The first couple of times he dabbles with storage seals, he ends up losing a few articles of clothing to a void, and there are a couple inevitable explosions. 

_“Only you would manage to make an explosion out of a sealing scroll,” Jiraiya had griped, watching Naruto cough and wipe ash from his face._

It takes a week and a half before Naruto can produce consistent storage seals and after that, it becomes infinitely easier to understand seals. Two months pass by and Naruto has far better control over his chakra than he had ever dreamed, even if it was nowhere near perfect, and he finds he is suited for seals that can be used offensively, much to Jiraiya’s chagrin. 

Naruto has chopsticks in one hand and a brush dipped in black ink in the other, he’d prefer to use colored ink, but Jiraiya had spouted some nonsense about sealing being a _noble_ art that had to be _respected_. Naruto had wanted to tell him that there was nothing disrespectful about colored ink, if anything it was _more_ respectful to use colored ink over plain black ink, but Jiraiya was the sealing master between the two of them. 

“If I use _this,_ ” Naruto did his best to carefully ink the desired character on his sheet of paper while stuffing a dumpling that was still too hot into his mouth, “instead of the other character, I could increase the range. I want to test it tomorrow, but we’d have to go far, somewhere where I can potentially blow up a few trees without scaring anybody – did Takana-san tell you about the explosion he heard? I think the old man is on to us, he may look like he’s half blind and acts like he’s deaf, but I swear he knows _something_ –” 

“ _Naruto,_ ” Jiraiya cuts in almost pleadingly. “Eat. We can talk more about seals and experiment tomorrow, we spent hours trying to get the entrapment seal to work and I don’t have the energy to do any more.” 

Naruto deflates childishly for a moment, he can’t blame Jiraiya when he’s done nothing but do his best to answer all of Naruto’s seemingly endless questions and reviewed each of his attempts at sealing with utmost care. Naruto just can’t help that his excitement over sealing doesn’t die down, even on the days where he couldn’t get a single thing right. 

“Eh, sorry,” he offers, “it’s just really exciting . . . . And it’s nice to learn something that makes me feel closer to them.” 

Naruto takes note of the way Jiraiya stills for a split second. They haven’t really broached the subject of his parents since the night of his birthday, although Jiraiya has tried, but Naruto has learned how to avoid difficult conversations. He had yet to really understand all the complicated emotions that came from learning about his lineage, but through sealing he had found a bit of peace that quelled some of the turmoil. He was angry and bitter and he was also hurt and filled with grief, but he wasn’t ready to face it all. 

“When you finally manage to lower your explosion count to two a week, I’ll teach you some of the seals your father made up,” Jiraiya says slowly. 

Naruto beams, a smile so radiant it’s almost blinding. 

A month later, Naruto stares at the absolute _mess_ of a seal before him and questions if sealing is really the route he wants to take. 

“And you say he used this seal, more than once, as in he had to draw this monstrosity _multiple_ times?” Naruto questions, bringing the seal closer to his face. 

There are some characters he recognizes, but many he doesn’t and can’t even begin to try and decipher what their functions may be. Jiraiya seems far too delighted by Naruto’s plight. 

“It’s a sealing barrier, which means you’ll have to know the hand signs as well,” Jiraiya tells him, doing a terrible job at holding back his glee. 

Naruto blanches, “now that’s just _cruel._ ” Between the war and being Hokage, Naruto doesn’t understand how his dad had managed to fit in time for creating ridiculously complicated seals. 

“Your mother helped him with that one, which is probably why it’s especially nasty, but you _did_ want a challenge.”

Naruto shakes his head again, “there has to be another way,” he says, pulling the seal a little farther away from himself. “Maybe if I figure out the characters and tweak them the right way I could find a way to do this without the hand signs.”

“No, no, _no_. There’ll be none of your tweaking for this one, not until you’re able to recreate this without fail the traditional way. We’ve wrecked these plains enough, and I don’t want to see what kind of destruction an improper barrier seal could cause, not with you behind it,” Jiraiya chastises. 

Naruto wants to be offended, but he knows that Jiraiya’s caution is highly warranted. 

“Tch, _fine_. I’ll learn this seal in no time, just you wait. You can scurry along to Mahime-san’s shop, she keeps asking for you whenever she sees me in the market. She must be as weird as you if she still likes you after the last time,” Naruto trails off, words turning into a mumble at the end. 

Mahime-san was a nice woman who worked at the clothing shop in the nearby town. Upon Naruto’s first visit to her shop, the woman had given him a look of distaste that had brought back that familiar unease that he attributed to Konoha, but she’d grabbed onto the sleeve of the new jumpsuit he’d gotten several weeks prior and said, _“what’s a handsome boy like you wearing something as ugly as this? It just won’t do!”_

Naruto had wanted to be offended, but as she dragged him through her shop, telling him what colors would compliment his skin – _blue, like your eyes!_ – and what the best material was for a traveller like him, he could only focus on holding back the traitorous swell of emotion in his chest. Buying clothing in Konoha had been hell, always being pointed towards the cheaper garments, or being refused service entirely unless he was accompanied by Kakashi or Iruka. 

Jiraiya had met her soon afterwards and had looked so downright _smitten_ with Mahime-san that Naruto had almost gagged. He didn’t know Jiraiya could make such an expression, not when Naruto knew all about the _hot, passionate_ romance Jiraiya wrote about. But Jiraiya had blundered his way through trying to ask Mahime-san out on a date and had fled for the hills instead of waiting for an answer from her. 

Naruto calls out a halfhearted, _“ja ne,”_ as Jiraiya makes his leave. He draws a rather large stack of notes from one of the storage scrolls attached to his hip and spreads the notes out alongside his dad’s monster of a seal. 

“Okay, dad, if you’re out there somewhere, now would be a good time to impart some wisdom, alright?” He mumbles to himself. 

He pushes the sleeves of his new dark blue shirt – courtesy of Mahime-san – and begins to work on deciphering the many components of his dad’s Five Point Elemental Barrier. 

_Because a four point seal just wasn’t enough, right?_ He gripes as he takes his own notes on the different anchors found in the seal. _You just had to add another point and drag the elements in._

And if Naruto lets a couple of tears roll down his cheeks as he goes over his dad’s meticulous work, they go unacknowledged by the sense of peace Naruto finds from nurturing the little bit of connection he has to the man that gambled everything to let Naruto and Konoha see another day. 

Later that night, after Naruto’s washed off an excess amount of ink and soot from his skin and hair, he sits across from Jiraiya with too much food between them – the innkeeper insists that she always accidentally makes too much food – and some of Jiraiya’s encrypted letters between them. 

“ . . . There’s some tension in Kiri, but that’s to be expected. The people are rioting against their Mizukage, but with little success,” Jiraiya sighs heavily. 

Naruto makes a noncommittal sound around a mouth full of noodles – Keito-san, the innkeeper, had caught wind that Naruto’s favorite meal was ramen and brought it to them at least once a week – he’d heard all about Kirigakure and their Yondaime. While Jiraiya had expressed that the political affairs of other Hidden Villages was not something Konoha could involve themselves with, the fact that Yagura was a jinchuuriki made him someone Jiraiya had to keep some kind of tabs on, especially since the threat of the Akatsuki was right around the corner. 

“Are we going to have to go to Kiri anytime soon?” Naruto asks, holding up the most recent letter.

 _The roses are in bloom_ , there’s blood on the streets. _But the storm is as heavy as ever,_ the Yondaime is as strict as he’s always been. _The roses won’t last, they will be swept away by the storm,_ the people rioting don’t have much time left.

“For as terrible as Yagura is, he’s got an army on his side and full control of his bijuu. Going in there to aid the rebels would be a suicide mission and Tsunade-hime would kill me if I dragged you out there,” Jiraya laments.

“So we’re just gonna let the roses be swept away? Kiri’s going to stay bloody and keep churning out people like Zabuza and Haku and Kisame and no one’s gonna do anything about it?” And it’s been years since his mission to the Land of Waves, but Naruto still holds onto that grief.

 _“I realised the most painful thing. That in this world my existence was not needed,”_ Haku had told him, and Naruto had been desperate since then to see a world in which such things wouldn’t be said.

(Some nights he’d recount Haku’s words and wonder what he was doing, traipsing across the Elemental Nations as if there wasn’t more to be done. He felt guilty.)

“I’ll send word to Tsunade-hime and ask if there’s anything we can do, alright? I want to help the rebel force in Kiri, but I can’t go ahead and risk a large war between Konoha and Kiri either,” Jiraiya tells him.

“Fine, but tell Baa-chan that I’m willing to talk to the damn Yondaime myself, jinchuuriki to jinchuuriki, _ne?_ He won’t scare me off,” Naruto grumbles, stabbing his chopsticks into a cut of pork. 

Jiraiya laughs heartily, “what? You’re gonna talk him out of his reign of terror?"

Naruto raises a brow at him, “maybe I will.”

“Alright, kid, but you’re gonna have to do some more training before we can even step foot in Kiri.”

“I’ll train ten times harder than you’ve ever seen, _‘ttebayo._ ”

Another month passes and Naruto’s gone two entire weeks without having a single seal blow up in his face. He has yet to try activating the Five Point Elemental Seal, but he knows the hand signs like the back of his hand and he can draw out the seal with ease and he's even made his own adjustments that Jiraiya had begrudgingly approved of. After Naruto’s declaration of wanting to help out in Kiri, Jiraiya had also begun teaching him more taijutsu, guiding him through katas he’d never seen before.

“Straight from Mount Myoboku! I’ll take you there someday, the toads knew your father and I’m sure they have stories to tell,” Jiraiya tells him as he parries a kick from Naruto and sends him flying to the side.

“ _Gamabunta knew my dad?_ ” Naruto calls out from his spot on the ground, he'd met the giant toad once and well, they hadn't really gotten off on the right foot.

From his spot on the ground, Naruto can feel the bruise forming along his side. For an old man, Jiraiya was far too good at throwing him across the open fields while they trained.

“Of course they did, I was there when Minato signed the summoning contract,” Jiraiya tells him, having made his way across the field to pull Naruto up from the ground. “Let’s go at it again. During battle your body needs to move quickly, but your mind even quicker. Find the appropriate openings, read my movements before I can read yours.”

And the days pass like that. Naruto learns more than he ever thought possible from Jiraiya, he hears countless stories of war and of people who deserved more than what the shinobi life offered. He shares meals with Jiraiya and Keito-san, sends out clones to help Takana-san tend to his growing garden. He teases Jiraiya over his budding relationship with Mahime-san and spends whatever days he isn’t training wandering around Tsuwano. There are kids who look at his whiskered face and do not run away, adults who call out his name so they can stop and chat whenever he passes by, and if it wasn’t for the fact that the world still had so much that needed fixing, Naruto would consider staying in Tsuwano forever.

Naruto’s . . . happy. It strikes him how little it takes to make him feel that way – _acceptance, all he’d ever wanted was to be accepted_. While there are still things he has yet to confront – Konoha’s betrayal, because letting a child believe he was never worth being cared for _is_ betrayal, Konoha’s disregard, and Sasuke – the ground beneath his feet has never felt so stable.

Three months later, when Tsunade sends official word as Hokage telling Jiraiya and Naruto that their trip has come to an end and that they are to return to Konoha at once, Naruto wants nothing more than to rip up the letter and pretend he’s never read it. They’ve been away from Konoha for sometime around two years and it doesn’t feel like enough. There are places he has yet to see, keychains left to collect, and so many more people he wants to meet.

He doesn’t let Jiraiya know how he feels, but the old man can tell by the way his hands shake as he packs his things the night before their departure. Jiraiya wants to apologize to him, for he spent many years away from Konoha and understands the feeling of wanting to continue wandering the world, but he knows Tsunade, and if he doesn’t arrive in Konoha within the next five days with Naruto at his side, she’d do _everything_ in her power to make him regret it.

The next day, when the sun begins to filter in through the windows, Naruto looks around the room and it looks as barren and untouched as it had the first day they'd arrived all those months ago. Naruto had quickly filled up each surface with scrolls, brushes, items he bought whenever he went out to the market, and Jiraiya had laid out various manuscripts and articles of clothing wherever there was space. There had been so much to pack, to the point where Naruto had decided to use a large sealing scroll to store everything he had amassed instead of hauling around way too many smaller ones. It's a stark contrast to when he'd left Konoha, where all the things he'd cared about fit into a single bag with ample room for more.

 _I don't want to go back,_ he tells himself as he leaves the inn, Keito-san and Tanaka-san smiling sadly and handing him a wooden bento box with too much food.

"I cooked too much again, you know these old hands aren't as stable as they used to be," Keito-san says as she hands the box over. "Better the extra goes to you instead."

Naruto smile is far too wide, "of course. What on Earth will you do when Jiraiya and I are no longer around to take the extra?"

Keito-san shakes her head, raspy laughter leaving her, "you take care of yourself out there, boy. And know there'll always be a room waiting for you here if you need it."

There's a thick swell of emotion in Naruto's throat and he can only manage to nod in response. Her words echo in his head over and over again as he walks alongside Jiraiya towards Konoha.

 _This is stupid,_ he thinks bitterly, _Why am I going back to a place I can never call home?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a very very basic grasp of honorifics, so I probably won't use them all too often. If I use them incorrectly please let me know! I wanted to have Sasuke make an appearance this chapter but Naruto looked me in the eye and said: "No Sasuke, just sealing and Jiraiya," and who am I to disagree? But Sasuke'll come around soon enough, so please look forward to that!
> 
> I can be found on tumblr as uzushiosun 
> 
> Thank you for reading!


	3. A Tale of Freedom and Fury

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> >   
> The tense line of Naruto’s shoulders that had appeared as soon as they’d left Tsuwano disappears and he looks so damn relieved that Jiraiya knows letting him go is the right decision. 
>> 
>> “Ja ne, Jiraiya.” 
>> 
>> “Ja ne, Naruto.”  
> 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I said I'd be updating every 7-10 days but then I wrote this chapter and I have a terrible habit of only being able to loosely edit my work and calling it a day, so here's the third chapter. After this I can't say whether or not I'll have a consistent schedule as far as updating goes, but for now I'm running with all the muse I've got before the cursed writer's block gets in my way. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Jiraiya thinks back to the little kid he managed to piss off the moment he stepped foot in Konoha again and then looks at the kid walking alongside him. The little kid he’d met back then was a force to be reckoned with and now Naruto was  _ still  _ a force to be reckoned with, but he was less explosive, and prone to contemplative silences that he would have never managed to hold before. He can’t say that he misses that little kid, not when he’s grown to be so proud of the person Naruto has become, but he misses the constant glee-filled spark that Naruto had before. 

_ That spark died when that Uchiha left,  _ he thinks. He was there when Naruto woke up after the failed retrieval mission. He’d seen the devastation written all over Naruto’s features, had pretended not to see the tears threatening to spill, and had tried to crack a joke just to see if Naruto was still capable of smiling. He was capable of smiling, but Jiraiya noticed as more of his smiles became void of their usual warmth. 

_ Naive,  _ Naruto had been naive and then forced to face his demons and the betrayal of the first person who’d acknowledged him as a worthy contender and all the naivety had been stripped away. He’d been an unfortunate witness to Naruto running himself to the ground in the months that followed Sasuke’s leave, had listened to Kakashi vent his frustrations over how he’d done nothing more than set his students up for failure and how he’d let down his sensei. 

He’d listened to Kakashi tell him about the way Naruto was treated by those in Konoha, had listened to Kakashi tell him all the times Naruto’s actions had raised red flags and how he never thought to do more for him. 

_ “I’m just as guilty,”  _ he’d told Kakashi.  _ “Minato made me his godfather and the first thing I did was leave Naruto to suffer and I never even bothered to see if he was alright.”  _

Minato had had faith like no other in Konoha and its people. When others saw the bleakness of the world and believed that’s all there was, Minato focused on bringing as much light as he could, despite the war and all the terrible things he had to see and do. Minato had loved Konoha fiercely and Jiraiya had foolishly believed that Konoha would repay that love and care towards Naruto. Jiraiya hadn’t seen Minato nor Kushina in their final moments, but he knew that Kushina had believed in Minato as much, if not more, than Jiraiya and had sacrificed herself believing that her son would be in good hands. 

He looks at Naruto, whose steady gaze is on the trees beginning to appear several miles ahead of them. Naruto could have had the same love for Konoha that Minato had, but Konoha had done enough to warrant nothing more than hate from the boy. 

Jiraiya believed it was a miracle that Naruto hadn’t left before Sasuke, which is why he feels so guilt ridden as they make their way back to Konoha. How can he send him back when he had been the one to ask Tsunade for permission to take him out of the village in the first place? After seeing the way Naruto had loved each town and village they traveled to, after seeing his growing collection of keychains, and seeing him  _ glow  _ surrounded by old ladies who gave him more compliments than he had ever known what to do with,  _ how can he send him back?  _

He couldn’t. He couldn’t send Naruto back knowing he was sending him back to a place that had done its best to crush his spirit. 

“Hey, Naruto,” he calls out, receiving a small hum in reply, “how good do you think your entrapment seals are?” 

“ _ Eto . . .  _ pretty good, if you ask me.”

“I am asking you.”

“Then  _ really  _ good, I really want to try out the entrapment seal I showed you last week, but I can’t think of a person or a thing big enough to warrant that heavy of a seal,” Naruto says, a wickedly determined grin coming into view. His aptitude for sealing would have given Minato  _ and _ Kushina a run for their money.

“Alright, if you could pick any place to go right now, where would you go?” 

“That’s easy, I’d go to Kiri,” Naruto responds just as easily, “why’re you asking?”

“So I can come up with a viable story for Tsunade-hime when she asks why I’ve come back to Konoha without you.”

Naruto stops and turns to face him, looking both parts uncertain and shocked, “Ero-sennin, are you saying what I think you’re saying?” 

“If there’s anyone that can help take down a bloodthirsty Kage, it’s you,” he says, and for some reason there are emotions swelling in his chest. “Go to Kiri and find a man with an eye he shouldn’t have, I’ll hold off Tsunade-hime from sending out teams to search for you as long as I can.” 

Naruto looks at him like he still can’t believe the words that are leaving his mouth, which is fair since Jiraiya can hardly believe them himself, “Kiri is unkind and the threat of the Akatsuki is still present. I’ll send word when it’s time for you to come back to Konoha, but today is not that day. Go, Naruto, and be careful.”

_ Don’t get yourself killed,  _ is what he wants to say. He’s not sure how wise it is to let Naruto go straight towards what could be his untimely death, but he’s not sure that bringing him back to Konoha wouldn’t have the same effect. 

The tense line of Naruto’s shoulders that had appeared as soon as they’d left Tsuwano disappears and he looks so damn  _ relieved  _ that Jiraiya knows letting him go is the right decision. 

“ _ Ja ne,  _ Jiraiya _.”  _

_ “Ja ne,  _ Naruto.” 

  
  
  
  


Naruto turns east and doesn’t look back. 

He runs and runs and there’s freedom in the air and he wonders if this is what Sasuke felt when he’d turned his back on Konoha. He doesn’t want to draw the comparison, but the farther away from Konoha Naruto gets, the more he thinks about all those he’s leaving behind, many who may never understand his motives or reasoning for throwing his loyalty to Konoha to the wind. The exact same way he still doesn’t understand why Sasuke left, he had learned a couple of things since he had last seen Sasuke and he knew there had to be more to Sasuke’s leave than Orochimaru’s offer of power. 

Naruto thinks it’s  _ almost  _ too bad that his guilt over Haku outweighs his feelings surrounding Sasuke. If not, he might have set out on a journey to track down Sasuke, but Sasuke is alive – Naruto hasn’t heard anything about Sasuke in so long, but he  _ knows  _ that the bastard is alive – and Haku isn’t. 

For several days he runs towards Kiri, leaving the Land of Fire behind and blazing his way through the Land of Hot Water until he reaches the ports, only stopping for rest when his legs start feeling like jelly or when his stomach begins to complain. His darker clothing, courtesy of Mahime-san, helps him blend in easily with the other civilians boarding the boats to Kiri. He sits between a fisherman and an old woman, taking in their weathered appearances. No one on the boat makes conversation and no one makes eye contact. They’ve all got looks on their faces that makes Naruto wonder what exactly it is that he’s heading towards, aside from a bloody civil war. 

He knows they’re nearing Kiri when the mist becomes thicker, momentarily obscuring the islands from view. It reminds him of Zabuza and although there’s no killing intent leaking into the air, there is something heavy that makes the mist around him all the more oppressive. When he gets off the boat, the pressure in the air gets heavier and Naruto swears he can  _ smell  _ something in the air that he can’t quite name. 

_ War,  _ his mind supplies. He’d read Jiraiya’s encrypted letters and knows that the situation in Kiri is undoubtedly bleak, its people are caught in both a civil war and a system that doesn’t try to hide the fact that it only views people as tools to be used. 

_ “In Konoha, you fail your genin exam and you try again the following year. In Kiri, there is no exam waiting for you the following year, to fail means death,”  _ Jiraiya had told him, and it still sends a shudder down Naruto’s spine to think of children as young as Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon having to fight for their lives even though their lives had just begun. 

The streets of Kiri are dark and gloomy. No one stops to chat, everyone keeps their gaze averted, and judging by the line of tension he sees in everyone he passes by, they’re all ready to fight. Naruto had learned a thing or two about blending in from Jiraiya, so he adopts a similar line of tension in his body, lowers his head, and walks as if he knows exactly where he’s going. 

He ducks into the first inn he sees and presses a slaps several seals along the small room he’s given. In Konoha, he’d always been on the lookout for the villagers who weren’t afraid to be openly aggressive towards him, the streets of Kiri make him feel like he has to be a hundred times as vigilant, even if there’s not a single soul here who knows who he is. 

With a heavy sigh, Naruto drops down onto the futon in the corner of the room. Tomorrow, he had a rebel group to find and a civil war to join, but tonight he’d savor the feeling of freedom that Kiri’s oppressive mist had yet to stifle. 

  
  
  
  


Haruno Sakura hates Hatake Kakashi. 

(She doesn’t, but saying she hates him is an infinite amount of times easier than trying to pick apart and understand the myriad of emotions she has towards him.)

She  _ hates  _ Uchiha Sasuke. 

(That one’s close to being true, she’s not sure if hate is the right word, but she knows that what she does feel towards him is vastly different from the vapid feelings she’d had towards him all that time ago.)

And she  _ hates  _ Uzumaki Naruto. 

(She doesn’t, she could never, but at this point in time she is blinded by anger and disappointment and pure disbelief. It’s easier to say that she hates him instead.)

“Where is he?” She asks, fighting to contain the absolute  _ fury _ thrumming beneath her skin. 

“We don’t know,” Tsunade sighs heavily. 

If it wasn’t for the fact that Sakura had worked hard to reign in her emotions and channel them into the right avenues, she’d already have punched her way through Tsunade’s ever growing stack of paperwork and the desk Yamato had made a mere two days ago. 

“What do you mean you  _ don’t know?  _ Where is Jiraiya? Jiraiya was supposed to bring him back,  _ how the hell does a fucking Sannin lose an entire person?”  _ Sakura can feel the ANBU stationed just outside Tsunade’s office slink into the room, the angry spike of her chakra drawing their attention. Little do they know it won’t be Tsunade that they’ll have to protect from her fury, it’ll be Jiraiya. 

Tsunade gives her a chastising look, but Sakura does nothing to reign in any of her anger, ultimately forcing Tsunade to sigh heavily before continuing, “we have reason to believe he left of his own volition.”

Sakura almost raises her hands as if she was going to break away from a genjutsu, but she hadn’t felt one creep over her and she had worked damn hard to immediately recognize when she was beneath one. Tsunade telling her that Naruto had chosen not to come back, that he’d  _ left  _ was the harsh reality she had to swallow. 

(The truth is bitter and Sakura wants to spit it out.)

“He couldn’t have,” Sakura says, and despite her fury the words are much softer and there is hurt in her voice, “he’s not like  _ him.  _ He wouldn’t leave Konoha like that, he’d come back.” 

Tsunade looks pained, but it’s not enough for Sakura, “why are you just  _ sitting there?  _ You should be interrogating Jiraiya, or sending out a team after him, Naruto could be in danger right this second and we’re not doing a damn thing –”

“ _ Stand down, Haruno,” _ Tsunade commands, and Sakura hates how quickly she reigns her emotions back in so that she’s no longer wearing her damn heart on her sleeve. 

(Rest assured, she’s  _ still  _ fucking angry.)

“Do not let your emotions blind you,” Tsunade continues, “I am no fool. I will issue commands as I see fit and right now, without all the facts I can’t send out anyone after Naruto when there isn’t a single clue as to where he could be.”

“Yes, Tsunade-sama,” Sakura gets out through gritted teeth. 

Tsunade glares, Sakura never calls her Tsunade-sama, it’s always  _ Shishou.  _

“When we know where to look, I’ll be sending out a squad to search and bring Naruto home. Until then, do not give me a reason to doubt whether or not I should allow you on that squad.”

“Yes, Tsunade-sama.”

“Dismissed.” 

Sakura turns on her heel and leaves the office through the door. She had begun to drop in and out of the Hokage office through the window, but she knew Kakashi was poised just outside the window and she wasn’t quite sure she could stop herself from pummeling him if she got within a foot of him. 

She needed to break something.  _ Fast.  _

She all but stomps her way through the streets of Konoha, worried that if she takes to the rooftops she’ll blast holes through the ceilings with the force of her chakra. She stops for no one and doesn’t even try to look anywhere near approachable when the people around her begin to scamper off to the sides to avoid her. 

“Ino,” she barks out –  _ oh, if Kiba could see her now –  _ and it is a testament to Ino’s repeated encounters with Sakura’s temper that the blonde doesn’t even flinch, she merely turns to face Sakura. “I need to break something.” 

Chouji blanches and looks like he’s doing his best to become one with the booth he’s seated in and Shikamaru makes that small sound of disapproval he always does when faced with any sort of human emotion. 

“Sure thing, sweet pea,” Ino says, smiling in the way that Sakura has grown to adore. “Shika, Cho, I’ll catch up with you guys later.” 

Chouji says something that sounds like he’s trying to warn Ino – as if Sakura would  _ ever _ genuinely turn her temper towards Ino – but Sakura’s already storming out of the Yakiniku and headed straight towards Training Ground 3. Ino arrives seconds after her and it takes two more seconds for Sakura to throw all her rage out through chakra enhanced fists and flying pieces of Earth. 

Ino is the perfect sparring person. While Sakura is a heavy hitter to compensate for her lack of speed, Ino is light on her feet and dodges each of Sakura’s swings with ease. There are no words exchanged as Sakura shatters the ground beneath her feet and makes splinters out of the few trees lining the training ground. She only stops when her arms begin to hurt from the force behind her punches and when her chest is heaving. Ino’s at her side the moment she sees Sakura fall into a heap in the center of the now destroyed training ground, bringing Sakura’s overworked hand into her lap and spreading glowing green chakra over them. 

“He’s gone,” Sakura says, once she can manage to fit the words around the knot in her throat. 

“Who’s gone?” Ino asks slowly, but Sakura can sense the worry in her tone. 

“ _ Naruto.  _ Jiraiya came back, Naruto didn’t,” the words are rushing out of her before she can even think of holding them back, “they’re saying it was his choice not to come back. He’s not like Sasuke so I don’t understand. He loved it here, he wanted to be  _ Hokage _ , so why didn’t he come back?”

Sakura can hear the hitch in Ino’s throat, the way her hands stop glowing for a fraction of a second. And then it passes, because Ino’s always been good at holding back her emotions no matter how often Sakura had tried to coax her into being even a fraction as explosive as she was.

“. . . Is Tsunade going to send out a team to bring him back?” Ino asks, Sakura rolling onto her side so she can switch out the hand on Ino’s lap. 

“She said she would, but not yet,” Sakura sighs out, Ino’s presence has the uncanny ability to reach beyond Sakura’s anger and bring her more rational side to the forefront. “He wouldn’t leave, right? Something had to have happened, Naruto wouldn’t just leave Konoha behind.”

(Wouldn’t just leave  _ me  _ behind is what she wants to stay. Naruto and Sasuke had always felt leagues ahead of her, and now it feels like they truly might have gone somewhere Sakura could never reach.)

“The Naruto I remember wouldn’t do that,” Ino tells her. “Didn’t you guys come across Sasuke’s brother and that blue guy that one time? They were after Naruto, right?”

Sakura remembers and the memory of the malevolent pair still haunts her, “if Naruto’s in danger I’m going to  _ kill  _ Jiraiya.” 

(In cells of the Torture and Interrogation Department, a single sneeze is heard from Jiraiya the Toad Sage. Naruto’s working his way through a new seal when he sneezes and smears ink across his work.)

Ino raises Sakura’s now healed hand to her lips and presses a kiss against her scarred knuckles, “I’ll help you hide the body.” 

Sakura smiles half-heartedly, “I knew I could always count on you.” 

Ino snorts, and if it were any other day Sakura would jump at the chance to taunt her for it, “so, what’s your game plan?” 

“There are only so many people who could go after Naruto and send Jiraiya running back to Konoha without him,” Sakura sighs out, “Uchiha Itachi and Kisame are on that list, but if they were involved well . . . Jiraiya seems like he could hold them off long enough to make a run for it  _ with  _ Naruto, so it can’t be them. If it was Orochimaru again, we’d know but –”

“But what?” Ino asks, taking note of Sakura’s wide eyed expression as the cogs in her head continue to turn. 

“If it was Sasuke, with Orochimaru’s help,” Sakura tells her, “Sasuke . . . Sasuke’s the only person who could lure Naruto away and make it look like Naruto  _ chose  _ to go after him.”

“If that’s the case, ask for a squad with Lee, Hinata, Tenten, and Shino. Hinata and Shino are excellent trackers and Lee and Tenten may be the only ones who could truly hold up against Sasuke,” Ino advises, wearing an expression much more serious than it had been a few moments prior. “

“Don’t you think she’ll want Kakashi-sensei on the squad looking for Naruto?” 

“No, there’s word that Kakashi’s leaving tomorrow for a mission with Genma and Raidou all the way in Earth, highly ranked judging by the lack of information I managed to squeeze out of Kotetsu, which means they’ll be gone for a while,” Ino says and Sakura doesn’t think she’s ever loved the way Ino’s managed to wrap the chunin of Konoha around her finger more. 

“Alright, I should head to the office and let Tsunade know –” Ino holds out an arm to stop Sakura as she makes a move to stand up. 

“No, if you’re right, Naruto’s not in any  _ imminent  _ danger yet. You’ll tell Tsunade-sama tomorrow morning and leave in the afternoon, but tonight you’re spending it with me. I’m not letting you go off to chase after your batshit ex-teammate for who knows how long without keeping you to myself for a little longer.” 

Ino had quickly denounced Sasuke when she’d heard he left the village, and while it had rubbed Sakura the wrong way at first, she had grown to be amused by it and she secretly agreed once in a while. 

“Are you gonna carry me back to your place?” Sakura asks, much more relaxed now that she has a plan. 

Ino rolls her eyes, but Sakura doesn’t miss how fond she looks before she stands and lets Sakura climb into her back. She’ll give herself one more enjoyable night in Konoha with Ino before she scours the Elemental Nations searching for Sasuke and coming face to face with whether or not he’d grown to be as strong as he’d wanted to be. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally, I didn't plan for this chapter (I don't really have a plan for any of the chapters, the characters sort of pull me along) to have a Sakura POV and InoSaku was _definitely_ not something I'd had in mind at all. Sakura's one of my trickier characters, but I love her and I love the role she'll play in this story. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone reading this, all the wonderful feedback I've gotten has made me happier than I've been in weeks. I hope you've all enjoyed this chapter. 
> 
> I can be found on tumblr as uzushiosun 
> 
> Thank you for reading!


	4. A Tale of New Allies and Deception

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> >   
> “Do you trust in their abilities?” He asks her quietly.
>> 
>> “Of course I do,” she scoffs, “but that isn’t what this is about.”
>> 
>> “Yes, it is,” he cuts in. “I can’t let you send anyone after Naruto, but I can use the intel I’ve gathered and all the connections I’ve made to eliminate a threat larger than anything Naruto could be facing right now.”  
> 

Naruto had been careful. He’d switched into darker clothing to blend in with Kiri’s bleak atmosphere, had worn a hood to hide his bright blond hair, and he’d done his best to make his presence as unnoticeable as possible as he tailed a blue-haired boy who was trying to do the same. Except the boy  _ reeked _ of paranoia, his dark eyes constantly flitting back and forth and his stance shifting from relaxed to tensed whenever anyone got too close to him. 

Simply put, Naruto didn’t expect the boy to grab onto his kimono and slam him against the wall of a dark alley, kunai pressed against Naruto’s throat. If he took a moment to focus on the position of the blade, he’d realize it’s pressed right against his jugular where the right bit of force would result in his death.

_ What was it that Jiraiya said? To be careful? I’m doing a fantastic job so far.  _

“For one of the Mizukage’s dogs, you’re not that smart,” the boy snarls, “did you think I’d lead you right to the others?” He has pointed teeth like Zabuza. 

Naruto’s at a momentary loss for words and thinks it's funny how having a blade pressed against his throat makes all the faculties in his brain come to a standstill, “ . . . yes? But –”

The boy snarls and the blade presses further against Naruto’s skin, drawing a thin line of blood, “wait!  _ Wait,  _ I’m looking for a man with an eye he shouldn’t have –” 

Immediately, the blade is withdrawn, but Naruto doesn’t relax, not when the boy still looks downright murderous, “you know him then? I need to see him,” he tries, words coming out slow as to not raise any further alarm. 

“Tch,” the boy takes a step back, flicks his gaze towards the right. “Start walking, blondie. Don’t try anything funny, I’ll rip your spine out in broad daylight if I have to.” 

Naruto nods slowly and starts to walk, not daring to look back in fear of having his spine ripped out. He doesn’t know how that would work, but that murderous glint he’d seen in the boy's eyes assures him it’s absolutely possible. He walks further and further away from the central streets of Kiri, until there are more trees and the concrete beneath his feet starts to give way to damp grass and mud. 

“Stop,” and Naruto’s body goes ramrod straight, ignoring the way his sandals sink into the mud. 

A split second later, there’s a pair of shinobi just a few feet ahead, hands poised on the handles of their swords, “who’ve you got there, Chou?” Asks the stranger on the right. 

“Bringing someone in for Ao, tell him to be on guard,” the boy, Chou, calls out. The pair disappear with a burst of mist and then Naruto’s being ordered to walk again. The further he walks, the easier it is to see they’re approaching the rebels base, a small and faded building with no windows. He doesn’t see a single person as he walks into the building, but he feels like he’s being watched from every angle. 

He’s guided into an open room and there’s another blue haired man wearing an eye patch sitting and a brunette stands behind him, both her stance hostile and defensive. 

“Are you . . . you’re the man with an eye you shouldn’t have?” 

The man in question smiles, but it does little to relieve Naruto, not when Chou’s presence is still setting him on edge, “I didn’t know Jiraiya was traveling with the son of the Yellow Flash.” 

Naruto sputters for a moment and he can see the woman behind Ao take a step forward, but she’s stopped by the single hand Ao raises, “I had the  _ pleasure  _ of coming across the Yellow Flash and his fiery companion on various occasions. You look like them both, and your connection with Jiraiya makes it all the more obvious.” 

There’s a part of Naruto that wants to wonder how Ao had been able to figure out his lineage in only a matter of seconds, while the people of Konoha easily wrote him off as an orphan with unknown parents. 

“You’re not wearing a leaf hitai-ate and you’re wearing clothing meant to make you look like you’re another citizen of Kiri,” the woman behind Ao speaks up, “what are you here for?” 

Just as Naruto’s about to speak up, Ao speaks for him, “isn’t it obvious? He’s here to join the rebellion.” 

From behind him, Chou makes a sound of absolute disbelief, “I thought those mushy fuckers in Konoha were all about absolute loyalty to the bitter end.” 

And then it’s Naruto’s turn to laugh, short and bitter, “you’d be surprised.” 

“I like this one already, what’s your name, little one?” The woman says, stepping closer towards Naruto, no traces of hostility left.

“Uzumaki Naruto,” he says and her eyes seem to glow. Uzushio’s downfall wasn’t so long ago and her expression tells him that’s exactly what’s crossed her mind. 

“Terumi Mei,” she says, her smile a little too sharp to be considered warm. “What’ve you got for us?” 

Naruto’s grin is wicked as he draws a storage scroll from the folds of his clothing, letting it fall open with a small surge of chakra from his fingertips. He draws out several tags with seals inked across them, waving them in the air as if they were snacks instead of a variety of seals with enough strength to destroy several acres of land. 

“Come sit, Naruto,” Ao says, “we’ve got a lot to catch you up on.” 

Jiraiya knows Tsunade has every right to be angry, but it doesn’t make the weight of her glare any easier to bear. He sets down the encrypted letter in his hands with a heavy sigh and turns his body towards her, “I’m sorry.” 

“I just sent five of Konoha’s best shinobi on a mission with nothing but false information,” she says, her voice void of emotion. “They very well may be running towards their deaths.”

“Not all of the information is false,” Jiraiya counters and realizes those are the wrong words to say when her fist crashes against the wall of his cell.

“They’re expecting to find  _ Naruto _ ,” she spits out, “and they’ll be met with a pair of S-ranked criminals instead.”

“Do you trust in their abilities?” He asks her quietly.

“Of course I do,” she scoffs, “but that isn’t what this is about.”

“Yes, it is,” he cuts in. “I can’t let you send anyone after Naruto, but I can use the intel I’ve gathered and all the connections I’ve made to eliminate a threat larger than anything Naruto could be facing right now.”

Jiraiya wasn’t sure how true that statement was, not when Naruto was in Kirigakure facing shinobi who were known for their terrifying amount of power and insatiable bloodthirst. He couldn’t meddle with that corner of the world more than he already had, but he could focus on eliminating a threat that wasn’t confined to a small congregation of islands and actively wanted Naruto dead. 

“You used to tell me everything,” Tsunade sighs out, sounding as if her anger has finally begun to wear her down. “And then you started keeping secrets. You’re entirely different from the person I used to know.”

Jiraiya smiles sadly at that, he doesn’t have the heart to tell her that he hadn’t felt as if he was ever being true to himself until he’d left Konoha with Naruto. 

“Your shinobi will be fine,” he tells her instead, “Our informant tells us that Sasori and Deidara are skilled, but they’re no match for Sakura and her squad. By the end of their mission, we’ll have two less threats to worry about.”

“What am I going to tell her when she gets back?”

“That one’s easy,  _ hime _ . You tell her the information was nothing more than a ploy for an ambush and that you’re working hard to find as much information on Naruto’s whereabouts as possible.”

Tsunade sighs wearily once more, “alright, how many Akatsuki members are left after Team Sakura and Team Kakashi are done with their missions?”

Jiraiya pushes away the letters he had spread out before him, leaving a map littered with various notes in his atrocious handwriting. Team Sakura will take care of Sasori and Deidara while Team Kakashi deals with Kakuzu. “six. I’m still awaiting word on Hidan’s whereabouts, but once I have them I’ll entrust you with deploying a team that can handle someone of his caliber.”

Tsunade’s quiet for a moment before she speaks up, “how do we know that any of the information Itachi’s giving us is reliable?”

Jiraiya winces at the name, “you read his file, he’s loyal to a terrible fault.”

That fault being his willingness to massacre his clan to  _ ensure  _ Konoha’s safety. It was a fault that had made Jiraiya wary, but he’d pushed his doubts to the side in order to do all he could to keep Naruto – and in extension, all the other jinchuriki – safe. 

“I’m going to drink my way through an entire country’s worth of sake tonight,” Tsunade mumbles and Jiraiya shares the sentiment. “The Akatsuki, Sarutobi and Danzo’s bullshit, and a missing jinchuriki. Is there anything else you’d like for me to deal with?” 

He shakes his head, “it’s almost like karma, don’t you think?”

She scoffed at that, “If only it were as simple as that.”

Tsunade had been furious when Jiraiya had arrived in Konoha several days after the deadline she’d given and she’d been absolutely livid when she realized he hadn’t brought Naruto with him. His initial lie about how Naruto had escaped had been seen right through, but it did buy him two days to figure out how he’d keep Tsunade and the rest of Konoha off of Naruto’s tail – along with getting him thrown into a cell at the bottom of the Intelligence Department. He’d been threatened quite extensively for his continued refusal to tell Tsunade where Naruto had gone and it had taken a pathetic amount of begging for Tsunade not to tell anyone else about Naruto, at least not until he’d come up with a plan. 

“Can you at least tell me that he’s safe?” Tsunade asks quietly. 

Jiraiya shakes his head, “but he wouldn’t have been safe in Konoha either.” 

“How can you say that?” And there’s a flare of anger in Tsunade’s voice again, “Konoha is his  _ home.  _ I would’ve done everything in my power to keep that boy safe, but I can’t do that if he isn’t here.” 

“Konoha isn’t his home.” Jiraiya thinks of Tsuwano and all those who’d loved Naruto without him needing to prove that he wasn’t some sort of monster. “Those two years I spent with Naruto . . . that boy fell in love with every town and village we traveled to and the best part was that there were always people in those places who loved him without him having to prove himself.

“Naruto should hate Konoha. There are too many people here who only see him as a threat or as a weapon and that is not the life he deserves. How could I bring him back, hime? How could I bring him back to the village that adored his parents but hated him?” 

“There has to be something we could have done if you’d brought him back!” 

_ “What do you think I’m trying to do here?”  _ Jiraiya has never raised his voice at Tsunade, not like this, “you want Naruto to come back to Konoha? You want him to be  _ safe?  _ Then we take down the Akatsuki, we drive out the corruption from Konoha, and then we can  _ ask  _ him if he wants to come back. If you so much as try to force Naruto to stay in Konoha, I will do everything in my power to make sure he flees and that he is  _ never _ found again!” 

Tsunade regards him with nothing but surprise, but she’s quick to reign herself in. Her golden eyes narrow and her mouth is set in a thin line as she stands from her spot on the ground, “I’m going along with this plan of yours because I trust you, Jiraiya. Don’t make me regret it.” 

The heavy door of his cell slams behind her as she leaves. A few years ago, having Tsunade’s anger directed at him would have had him scrambling to do anything he could to placate her, but he now has more important things to take care of. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, writing this chapter: Sasuke! Sasuke, would you like to make an appearance?  
> Sasuke: No.  
> Me: Okay then. 
> 
> This chapter was difficult to write as I had to start slowly setting some more groundwork for what's going to come in the next couple of chapters. This chapter was spurred on by me remembering that Jiraiya has an extensive spy network and was supposed to have left Konoha to keep tabs on outside threats, such as the Akatsuki. And then I remembered that after the Uchiha massacre, Itachi was meant to be a spy for Konoha although in canon I don't remember him providing any sort of intel. Danzo still exists and he's still doing his own fuckery, but in the background though since the only people who know about his schemes are Tsunade, Jiraiya, and maybe a couple of other folks. Basically, I'm really fucking with canon but still keeping some things in place. 
> 
> Boy, that was a lot of me talking. Thank you all for reading this self indulgent little thing that is now turning out to be bigger than I thought it'd be! All your comments and kudos and all that other jazz bring warmth to my little heart. 
> 
> I can be found on tumblr as uzushiosun
> 
> P.S Midway through writing Naruto's POV I found out that he was only like 5'5 in Shippūden so he is now a Little One because Terumi Mei is definitely like 5'10 in this fic. Thank you for your time.


	5. A Tale of Teammates and Friendship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> >   
> Chojuro grins, spiked teeth on display, and Naruto smiles back, a genuine smile this time. I didn’t have this, he thinks and he’s filled again by the sort of warmth he’ll never get tired of feeling. 
>> 
>> “Good luck,” Naruto snorts, jabs his elbow into Chojuro’s side and laughs at the hiss he gets in response.  
> 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back in business, darlings.

Sakura leads her team straight into an ambush. 

She had expected to find Orochimaru and Kabuto at Tenchi bridge and follow them to their base, but instead was surrounded by an army of puppets and a blond madman going on a tirade about his art that she couldn’t quite make sense of. Both Akatsuki members, judging by their cloaks. 

She didn’t know whether or not to feel relieved when she noticed Naruto wasn’t with them. 

She punched her way through a line of puppets, sending pieces of wood and cloth flying in all directions. Her ears were ringing from the force a nearby blast and her arm was going numb from whatever poison the puppets were armed with. 

“Incoming!” Tenten shouted, giving Sakura a split second to dive out of the way. 

Sakura crouched on the ground, using her uninjured hand to siphon the poison out of her other arm. She watched as Tenten’s giant mace swung through the puppets, clearing the path between them and their assailant. Somewhere to the side she could hear the crackling of Hinata’s lightning crashing against the clay bombs being hurled their way, the faint buzz of Shino’s hive, both of them clearing the way for Lee to reach the blond maniac. 

As soon as her arm was free of poison, Sakura dived straight through the opening Tenten had created. The puppet master had an unnatural form, a face half obscured by a dark strip of cloth. He didn’t move as she approached, despite the fact that the rest of his puppets were being destroyed by Tenten’s barrage of weapons. 

She was seconds away from smashing her fist through his face when a mechanical tail rushed towards her, forcing her to use her momentum to throw herself away from the tail’s pointed edges. 

With a growl, Sakura pushed herself up and ran back towards him. She tried not to hesitate when a pair of arms and legs shot out from the sides of his cloak, and the rest of the cloak was torn to reveal the mask of a demon where there should have been a back. Things only seemed to get worse as the piece of cloth wrapped around his face is ripped off by one of the unnaturally large limbs. She feels the first senbon stab into her thigh and has less than a second to draw out a kunai and deflect the senbon charging straight at her. She knows she’s not going to get close to him this way, so she sends a load of chakra to her feet and dives to the side. 

“Tenten!” She calls out, keeping her gaze on her enemy. Tenten drops to her side, unfurling a scroll which sends dozens of kunai flying. “How many of those big weapons do you have left? I need you to aim them at his back and his head, by the looks of those limbs he’s fast, but I know you’re faster.” 

Tenten nods once and then she’s off, reaching heights in the air that Sakura’s always been a little envious of. 

“Give it up, you’re in way over your heads,” the man calls out in that strange voice of his. “Once my partner is done with your two friends, you will all make wonderful additions to my puppets.” 

Sakura clenches her teeth, “your puppets have been destroyed.” 

Tenten throws a fuma shuriken towards the man – who looks plenty inhuman – and she watches in annoyance as he uses his limbs to rush off to the side. He reminds her of a bug and she desperately wants to crush him. 

He’s fast on four limbs, but Tenten is faster. He dodges several more fuma shuriken, but quickly finds himself surrounded with no way to dodge the spiked ball that Tenten slams down onto his back. 

Sakura expects the sound of metal piercing through skin and blood to begin to pool, but to her horror all she hears is the splintering of wood and the creak of metal. Tenten’s spiked ball is shot back, Tenten narrowly avoiding one of the large spikes from impaling her arm. Sakura’s horror – frustration, surprise, she may be acquainted with Kankuro and his puppets, but his were nothing like this – a man rises from the now broken husk. At least, it looks like a man until she notices the parts where wood connects to wood and a cavity where a stomach should be, revealing a thick cable. 

“What _are_ you?” She breathes out, voice barely audible over the sounds of explosions to her far right and Lee’s boisterous yelling. 

_At least I know he’s alive._

She’s already smashed through dozens of puppets, one more doesn’t seem like much of a challenge. Of course, as soon as she has that thought, five spinning blades appear on either side of the puppet and the thick cable unfurls to reveal a stinger and Sakura has to stop herself from groaning aloud. Surely, the blades were coated in poison as were the swords his other puppets carried.

Sakura moved before she could fall victim to a stream of questions over what this man was. She would smash through him like she had all his other puppets, then help Hinata, Shino, and Lee finish with their opponent. 

She wasn’t within several feet of the man before a great flame was released. She had learned how to move much more efficiently in battle, but she didn’t manage to dodge the entirety of the flame, her left arm and part of her torso burned. 

“Sakura!” Tenten yelled out. Sakura tried not to grow dizzy at the smell of burnt flesh and the pain that crawled across her burned skin. 

“Distract him!” She called back out. Tenten was faster than she was, she could keep him engaged while Sakura healed enough of her burns to be able to use her left arm properly. 

She used her uninjured hand to wave healing chakra over her burned arm and then briefly over her torso, gritting her teeth at the feeling of her burnt skin healing itself. She was far enough where she could spare a glance to Hinata, who was creating a shield over herself, Lee, and Shino, as a clay bomb dropped onto them. The force of the bomb was staggering and she could only imagine what would’ve happened if not for Hinata’s efficiency. 

As soon as her arm wasn’t blistered and burnt, she turned to join Tenten. She’d have to thank Ino for suggesting her as part of her team, her seemingly endless stream of weapons had certainly made this battle a lot easier than if she’d had to face this puppet man on her own. She makes brief eye contact with Tenten, who nods, and then they get to work. 

  
  
  
  
  


Naruto ignores the snow that’s starting to seep into his sandals as he runs and skids across piles of snow. He doesn’t have time to turn his head to look at his pursuers, not when the second he slows down, he knows he’ll be open to being impaled. He pushes chakra to his feet and leaps forward, turning his body in an uncoordinated manner and landing in a crouched position akin to some sort of predator. His pursuers skid to a stop, seemingly surprised by his own halt. It gives him the five seconds he needs to draw a sealing scroll from his sleeve and slap it against the ground. A small burst of his chakra, and there are black inky tendrils spreading faster than his pursuers can react. 

“You won’t outrun those,” he taunts, slowly rising from his crouched position. The lines of the seal spread across the open clearing he’s led his pursuers to and as soon as it reaches them they become immobilized. 

He _shunshin’s_ out of the seal’s range, leaving behind nothing but a strong gust of wind. He ends up outside of one of the few businesses on this small island. He lets out a heavy sigh, leans against the nearest wall and slides down slowly until he’s sitting, not minding the cold ground surely dampening his clothing, he’ll dry it before Chojuro has the chance to notice and poke fun at him for it. 

Naruto is exhausted, and rightfully so after playing what feels like the longest game of _tag_ he’s ever played. Which isn't saying much since he was never allowed to play with the children in the village, but he’d _watched_ them play and he knows this game he’s playing is much longer. He’s in a small island off the eastern coast of Kirigakure, an island that used to be known for being the home of the _Kesshō_ clan. Renowned users of the Crystal Release, many who were wiped out by the Mizukage’s reign. 

Every once in a while, a few Crystal Release users would be born, and to ensure that the Kessho clan was to never rise to power again, the Mizukage would send his men out to find and kill any with that kekkei genkai. Today was one of those days, where the Mizukage had sent out a platoon of men to sniff out any kekkei genkai users and snuff them out. Naruto had spent the day incapacitating those men through a variety of seals, entrapping them, knocking them out with a well placed exploding tag, and leaving them out for other members of the rebellion to deal with. The first couple of times he came across the Mizukage’s men he’d thought of Haku and had immediately wanted to tear out their throats instead, but Ao’s warning had rang clear and he’d suppressed any and all rage he had felt. 

He was not to engage in close combat with these men if he could avoid it, or they would _“cut him into ribbons.”_ Naruto had protested the first time Ao had told him so, his two years of training with Jiraiya had made him much more capable in combat, but fighting with a sword or even against someone with a sword was not his strong suit. He stuck to sealing, preferring to not run the risk of being gutted, or even worse, facing Ao’s rage. 

Naruto had ten minutes to himself before he was heading towards the rendezvous point. Along with the five shinobi he’d been sent out with, there were two little girls, twins by the look of it. It wasn’t much of a surprise, they always picked up any willing kekkei genkai users when they went out like this. Better to have them stay at the base instead of in their homes where the Mizukage would definitely send more men out after them. The little girls are holding onto Tamazu’s –– a member of the rebellion –– hands. Their eyes are as pale as the snow on the island and it’d be easy to confuse them for Hyuuga, if not for their hair that’s the color of frost. 

“Let’s go,” Chojuro announces as he lands right behind Naruto. 

And then they’re off, Chojuro and Naruto split off in one direction, while the others split with their assigned partner. 

“Have you considered maybe never leaving Kiri?” Chojuro asks, breaking the silence they’d kept for the entirety of their trek back to their base. 

“Eh? For what?” Naruto responds, although he can’t say he hasn’t thought of staying in Kiri permanently at least once since his arrival a mere two weeks ago. 

“Doesn’t seem like you’re gonna go back to Konoha,” Chojuro hums out. “You don’t wear the headband and you always get this weird look in your eye when Konoha comes up in any sort of conversation. If you wanted to stay, after all this is over, I know Mei would let you.”

Naruto forces himself to smile at that, teeth on full display, “I think I’ll keep being a nomad for a while, life’s more fun that way, ne?” It’s easier than telling Chojuro that Konoha would never let him be a citizen of another village. He was _their Jinchuuriki_ and it was only thanks to Jiraiya and whatever elaborate scheme he had up his sleeve that Naruto hadn’t been found and hauled back to Konoha. 

Chojuro looks at Naruto in a way that lets Naruto know that he can see right through him, but Chojuro won’t press him for more. Despite the fact that Chojuro had threatened Naruto’s life the first time they met, the two had found friendship in one another. Naruto had enjoyed all those he’d made connections with throughout his travels with Jiraiya, but he liked this friendship the most. Chojuro saw him as someone of equal caliber, he joked and bickered with Naruto, listened to his stories about the time in different villages, and it was _easy._ It was so easy for Naruto to like Chojuro and it had been just as easy for Chojuro to like Naruto as well. He’d told him so, a small _“I like you, Blondie,”_ and Naruto had smiled so widely he’d felt as if his face was going to split in half. 

He’d had friends in Konoha. Or at least he thought he did, but none of those friendships were like this. His relationship with Sakura, although it had improved after Sasuke’s leave, was complicated and marred by his own resentment towards her earlier treatment of him. Then there was Sasuke who he had vehemently declared as his friend, but he wasn’t so sure anymore. There were others, of course, people who had started to treat him with some level of respect after he’d taken down Gaara, and he’d quickly mistook that for friendship as well, but it wasn’t. 

“Well,” Chojuro sighs out, throwing an arm across Naruto’s shoulders. “You’ll be here for a couple of months at least, I’ve got that long to try to convince you to give up on your nomadic lifestyle.” 

Chojuro grins, spiked teeth on display, and Naruto smiles back, a genuine smile this time. _I didn’t have this,_ he thinks and he’s filled again by the sort of warmth he’ll never get tired of feeling. 

“Good luck,” Naruto snorts, jabs his elbow into Chojuro’s side and laughs at the hiss he gets in response. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies for the extended wait on this chapter, I know I said I'd be updating every 7-10 days, but life doesn't always agree with the promises I make. I also wrote and rewrote this chapter like 3 times, so I have a bunch of little cuts that didn't make this chapter that I can use for other chapters, which is exciting! 
> 
> Sasuke doesn't want to make appearances yet and honestly? I want to fight him for it. 
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
